A church deacon from Rhode Island used the screen name "Meat" to entice a 14-year-old girl into a sex-filled rendezvous at a Watertown motel only to discover his underaged Internet nymph had been a male state trooper all along, a prosecutor said yesterday.

Edward Sadowski was arrested Thursday after he checked into the Super 8 Motel near the Arsenal Mall with a stash of Viagra, a vibrator, three condoms and a digital camera, Assistant Attorney General Julie Ross said.

"The defendant told police he intended to have sex with a minor," Ross said.

Sadowski, 58, of Coventry, R.I., pleaded innocent in Waltham District Court to charges of attempted statutory rape, attempted enticement of a minor to pose nude and attempted dissemination of matter harmful to a minor.

The retired teacher of 28 years and deacon from St. Vincent De Paul Church blocked his face from the glare of cameras as he stood handcuffed in the courtroom's prison dock. His attorney, Richard O'Reilly, said the father and grandfather already is seeking counseling. His parish priest visited him Thursday night at the Watertown Police Department.

"He has been delving heavily into the Internet of late. He has to deal with these problems and set his life back on track," O'Reilly said. "He indicated he would seek counseling if released."

According to investigators, an undercover state trooper posing as a 14-year-old girl in the online chatroom Little Girl Sex Chat began corresponding with Sadowski, who sent "her" images of body parts he claimed were his own and other pornographic images.

"The defendent indicated he wanted to come to the Boston area for the purpose of having sex with the 14-year-old girl," Ross said. "This case highlights how important it is to make children aware of the dangers that might be waiting for them out in the world of the Internet."

Authorities have no evidence that any real children have been approached for sex by Sadowski but investigators plan to seize and search his home computer, Ross said. Sadowski has no prior criminal record.